The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1: Projectiles for the People

The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1: Projectiles for the People

J. Smith, André Moncourt

Language: English

Pages: 791

ISBN: 2:00261305

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The first in a two-volume series, this is by far the most in-depth political history of the Red Army Faction ever made available in English.

Projectiles for the People starts its story in the days following World War II, showing how American imperialism worked hand in glove with the old pro-Nazi ruling class, shaping West Germany into an authoritarian anti-communist bulwark and launching pad for its aggression against Third World nations. The volume also recounts the opposition that emerged from intellectuals, communists, independent leftists, and then—explosively—the radical student movement and countercultural revolt of the 1960s.

It was from this revolt that the Red Army Faction emerged, an underground organization devoted to carrying out armed attacks within the Federal Republic of Germany, in the view of establishing a tradition of illegal, guerilla resistance to imperialism and state repression. Through its bombs and manifestos the RAF confronted the state with opposition at a level many activists today might find difficult to imagine.

For the first time ever in English, this volume presents all of the manifestos and communiqués issued by the RAF between 1970 and 1977, from Andreas Baader’s prison break, through the 1972 May Offensive and the 1975 hostage-taking in Stockholm, to the desperate, and tragic, events of the “German Autumn” of 1977. The RAF’s three main manifestos—The Urban Guerilla Concept, Serve the People, and Black September—are included, as are important interviews with Spiegel and le Monde Diplomatique, and a number of communiqués and court statements explaining their actions.

Providing the background information that readers will require to understand the context in which these events occurred, separate thematic sections deal with the 1976 murder of Ulrike Meinhof in prison, the 1977 Stammheim murders, the extensive use of psychological operations and false-flag attacks to discredit the guerilla, the state’s use of sensory deprivation torture and isolation wings, and the prisoners’ resistance to this, through which they inspired their own supporters and others on the left to take the plunge into revolutionary action.

Drawing on both mainstream and movement sources, this book is intended as a contribution to the comrades of today—and to the comrades of tomorrow—both as testimony to those who struggled before and as an explanation as to how they saw the world, why they made the choices they made, and the price they were made to pay for having done so.

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Discarded when it is worn out. You don’t ask why it’s worn out. You simply assume we are weak and (massively) opportunistic, that we are completely at peace in this corrupt, man-eating system. And that’s depressing. Enough of the category of comrade or pig! And now listen carefully: it is simply complete, defeatist nonsense to claim that the entire left is on the defensive. Your disgusting fantasy about us and our strength is really a sign that you are on the defensive… How did you arrive at the.

Prison; 1980, joined the RAF, died in a car accident the same year. Pohl, Helmut: b. 1943; 1970, associated with the RAF; 1973, joined the RAF; 1974, arrested; 1979, released from prison and went back underground; 1984, arrested; 1998, pardoned after he suffered a stroke in prison. Pohle, Rolf: 1942-2004; associated with both the RAF and the 2JM; 1971, arrested; 1975, released from prison as part of an prisoner exchange for CDU politician Peter Lorenz who had been kidnapped by the 2JM; 1976,.

Rhetorical style that resonated with many in the anarchist and sponti scenes throughout the country. The second guerilla tendency, with which we are more directly concerned, brought together individuals who were peripheral to the countercultural milieu of the Hash Rebels, and of a somewhat more serious bent. As Bommi Baumann would later explain, they “formed at about the same time as we did, because they considered us totally crazy.”3 This second tendency was much more theoretically rigorous (or.

Independent university-based Marxist organization. 2 Willy Weyer (SPD) was, at this time, the Minister of the Interior for North Rhine Westphalia and a key proponent of the militarization of the police force. 3 At the time a member of Gruppe 47, Günter Grass is one on the most significant German post-World War II authors and a noted liberal. 1 Unlike North America, suburbs in Northern Europe are generally occupied by the subproletariat and poorly paid immigrant workers. 2 Gauche Prolétarienne.

Strike throughout Israel’s prisons, and outside support was offered by left-wing Arab and Jewish organizations. The basic demands were better conditions and an end to racist discrimination within the prisons, whereby Jewish prisoners received preferential treatment in regards to food and visits. [Journal of Palestine Studies, “Strike of Arab Prisoners in Israel,” Journal of Palestine Studies 7, no. 1 (Autumn, 1977): 169-171]. 2 Twenty IRA prisoners were hunger striking at the time against brutal.

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